Gall stands tall as IU's lone women's track competitor

If one is the loneliest number, then Jessica Gall is the loneliest athlete.\nThe junior distance runner will be IU's only representative at the 2005 edition of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships today at the University of Arkansas.\nAnd she's pumped. \n"I'm really excited to be going to nationals," Gall said. "I know more of my teammates will be with me next year. This will be my first time going to the meet so I'm really excited."\nThe polls had Gall ranked as high as sixth in her specialty event -- the 5000-meter run, but she is seeded No. 7 for her race tonight.\nThe top eight finishers earn All-American status, on which Gall has her eyes set. \n"It's a really nice feeling knowing that out of all of the people who compete, I am ranked that high," Gall said. \nGall's road to nationals started when she was growing up in West Lafayette -- a town not normally associated with the IU Hoosiers.\nShe first started running road races with her friend's parents in the third grade, and said she has always been a competitor. She played soccer and basketball in middle school, but focused on cross country and track in high school.\nThen one day Gall received a phone call from the IU women's distance coach. \n"Coach (Judy) Wilson called me and I really liked talking to her, so I came to the campus and I loved it," Gall said. "Coach Wilson pretty much talked me into it, and I have no regrets."\nIn the fall, Gall placed 18th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, which proved to her that she could compete at the national level. However, early in the indoor season Gall became terribly ill for a little more than two weeks crippling her training. \nThe two weeks of illness weren't enough to keep her from track and field's big dance. Gall earned her spot at the NCAAs when she ran a 16:03.47 -- surpassing the automatic qualifying time of 16:10.00 to place fourth in the event. \nGall accomplished this Feb. 12 at the Husky Classic at the University of Washington, a weekend when the rest of her team was competing at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas. \n"This is why we brought her here," Wilson said in a statement Feb. 12. "We felt that this kind of competition would really give her the time she needed to qualify. She was in eighth heading into the last mile, but really turned it on from there and finished up the race real strong."\nAt the national stage, the competition can get intense and so can the nerves, but for the most part Gall is relaxed and ready to run, she said.\n"I'm not worried about what could happen," she said. "I'm just focusing on running a good race. Whatever happens -- happens. This is just an amazing opportunity and I'm glad to be there."\nThis political science and Spanish double-major someday plans to go to law school, but she wants to focus on running for the moment.\n"I want to see how far running takes me," Gall said. "If I have a lot of momentum coming out of college I want to go with it."\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Fischer at jbfische@indiana.edu.